It is always interesting to me to hear what people think Mormons believe. I've heard theories about worshiping salamanders (which, btw, I can explain where this belief comes from. Its actually pretty interesting) to theories that we worship the prophet Joseph Smith. None of this is true.
I think I am going to devout some of my next posts to different Articles of Faith. Joseph Smith actually wrote them, so it is interesting that the very first thing he wanted people to know is the following:
We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.
So what can I take from this one sentence? A few things. "We believe" indicates that any LDS member should believe whatever is stated following the phrase. In interviews to get baptized, our bishops will ask "Do you believe that God is our Eternal Father? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world?" This is the first thing that is asked and is therefore the most basic of our religion; God is our Father and His Son is our Savior. Sounds like most any Christian belief.
However, what makes our faith in God and Christ different from those of other faiths, is just that: God and Christ are two different beings. This is sometimes hard to grasp, as traditional Christianity teaches that they are one spirit. I believe that accounts found throughout the New Testament, including scriptures in John 5 and John 17, show that the two are two different beings.
For example, in John 5: 17-47, Christ continually testifies of His Father. He says in verse 30,
"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
He says that judgement is just because it is not a manifestation of His own will, but is a manifestation of His Father's. They have two separate wills and are two separate beings.
I also believe, that just as Christ testified of He and the Father being two different beings, that Joseph Smith saw both God and Christ and that they were two different beings. Smith says in his History,
"It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (v.17)
From this sacred moment, Iunderstand that there are two different beings and that I worship God, my Father, and rely on Christ for redemption.
They have separate wills? My faith is destroyed. I thought their wills were one.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm playing devil's advocate with you here, I understand the more subtle distinction you're pointing out- the fact that there are two individual wills involved, totally united though they be.
Good use of biblical references boss.
By the way, how did you come to know this truth independently (or, to be more accurate, interdependently with God and no one else)? There's various ways, and by that I mean you could have gained a witness by the spirit that prophets gave the correct interpretation of these scriptures, or the Spirit taught you directly through personal revelation, or maybe an angel instructed you (I don't see why not, angels continue to minister today). So what was it for you?
ReplyDeleteThere is a whole branch of Christianity that believes this. Term: Unitarian.
ReplyDeleteI'd say also that we qualify as Universalist (although there is a slight quibble).
And I've know more than a few Mormons who joined the Unitarian-Universalist church after leaving this one.